The Paradox Of Horror Summary
From the moment you’re born, your mind begins to develop certain emotions, a lot of which help you determine how to feel about different types of situations. One of these emotions is fear. Everybody is afraid of something in life. However, is being afraid always a bad thing? Given people’s high demand for horror these days, this would turn this problem into a paradox, creating some room for pleasure within horror’s spooky content. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons why some people like horror, despite its repulsive features. My argument will be based on the idea that people like horror because of the curiosity it awakens and also because horror films allow us to believe in the existence of unnatural beings, like ghosts or demons, which is a key step in the process of discovering unknown truths about
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Referred to it in his article “The Paradox of Horror” as the “enjoyment theory,” this idea asserts that a people are attracted to horror simply because they can enjoy being scared and disgusted. This theory also explains how the genre has as its self-conscious aim, the production of fear and disgust in its audience, and it has become increasingly sophisticated and successful in achieving this end. I believe this is exactly right. People who love to watch horror movies, enjoy that activity because of the pleasure the film offers them. Nevertheless, in order for a person to enjoy fear or an experience that scares them, they necessarily have to be mentally strong. Otherwise, horror would turn into a terrifying experience with no aesthetic pleasure whatsoever, disallowing the audience to feel in control due to the lack of separation of fear from the experience, making it too real for
Referred to it in his article “The Paradox of Horror” as the “enjoyment theory,” this idea asserts that a people are attracted to horror simply because they can enjoy being scared and disgusted. This theory also explains how the genre has as its self-conscious aim, the production of fear and disgust in its audience, and it has become increasingly sophisticated and successful in achieving this end. I believe this is exactly right. People who love to watch horror movies, enjoy that activity because of the pleasure the film offers them. Nevertheless, in order for a person to enjoy fear or an experience that scares them, they necessarily have to be mentally strong. Otherwise, horror would turn into a terrifying experience with no aesthetic pleasure whatsoever, disallowing the audience to feel in control due to the lack of separation of fear from the experience, making it too real for